Jasmine

10.31.11 Jasmine

Having no idea what the recipe would be to make Jasmine vodka, we followed ginfool's recipe for Elder Flower infusions.  "Elderflower 1/3cup :1cup 28 hours. New Amsterdam much more successful than Tanqueray. Lighter and more floral result. Try it with ginger and simple syrup and/or ginger ale."

375 ml Fris. That translates to ~1/2 cup of Jasmine flowers for 375ml of vodka. We used the kitchen scale to measure that 1/2c jasmine flowers weighs 3/8 oz. Infusion started 10.31.11 at 10:30pm. E thinks we need to be careful because this one could turn bitter quickly.

Elder flower

10.31.11 Elder Flower

We followed ginfool's recipe for Elder Flower infusions.  "Elderflower 1/3cup:1cup 28 hours. New Amsterdam much more successful than Tanqueray. Lighter and more floral result. Try it with ginger and simple syrup and/or ginger ale."

375 ml Fris. That translates to ~1/2 cup of Elder Flowers for 375ml of vodka. We used the kitchen scale to measure that 1/2c elder flower weighs 1/2 oz. Infusion started 10.31.11 at 10:20pm

Banana

10.26.11 We're back!

This is our first new infusion after a long time away. We went for a test size (6.25 oz Fris) because we're really not sure how this one will turn out. We used half a banana, cut into slices. The banana was really ripe, so we're suspecting this will be quicker than normal.

Toasted Coconut

03.28.10

After we were so disappointed by our recently completed coconut infusion, we decided to try to improve upon it. Lissa was experimenting with making homemade Samoa girl scout cookies. After toasting the coconut for the cookies, she was wondering how a toasted coconut infusion would come out. Luckily, there has been 5 oz of Fris sitting in L's kitchen, waiting to be used.

We used 2.5 cups of fresh, grated coconut for 750 ml (~25oz) vodka in our coconut infusion. To scale the same we'd use 1/2 cup toasted coconut. However, that infusion took 3 months, so we'll use more coconut in a hope to bring down the infusion time.

1 cup (store bought this time!) sweetened shredded coconut. Toast for ~15 minutes in a 300 degree oven. Stir every 4-5 minutes to ensure even toasting and to prevent burning. L found that she liked the flavor better when the coconut was a light golden brown, instead of golden brown, so toast the coconut to your own taste. We ended up with just less than a cup of coconut after the toasting and taste testing. We added this to the 5oz Fris vodka, and we have no idea if this will come out well or how long it will take.


06.14.10 
Filtered the toasted coconut vodka. This turned out far better than the regular coconut vodka. The flavor is a lot stronger. This will be how we make coconut vodka from now on.

Cranberry-Apple

03.14.10 Does Cranberry + Apple = Cranberry-Apple?

The question that has been on our minds recently is: is mixing two infused vodkas equivalent to having both of the ingredients infused together? For example, is half a shot of strawberry vodka plus half a shot of vanilla vodka equivalent to a shot of vodka that was infused with strawberry and vanilla simultaneously?

Normally, we'd use 1 cup fruit for 750ml vodka. That is approximately 1 apple. Since cranberries have a strong tart flavor, we do not want it to overwhelm the more subtle apple. So, we are guessing that we should use half as much cranberry as we normally would. We used a Macintosh apple and half a Fuji apple, both proportionally equal in the two infusions.

375 ml Fris

1/2 cup frozen cranberries, cut in half

1 apple, thinly sliced

187.5 ml Fris (6.25 oz)

1/4 cup frozen cranberries, cut in half

187.5 ml Fris (6.25 oz)

1/2 apple, thinly sliced

3.21.10 Needs more Apple

Filtered all 3 infusions. The apple was definitely not strong enough, so we added more apples (1 Pink Lady, 1/2 a Macintosh), again split proportionally equal between the two infusions.

03.28.10 Done?

Filtered the apples out of the cranberry-apple and apple infusions.
E: nice balance bet apple and cranberry tartness. No vodka flavor at all. A very nice rose coloring. Ben: I know it's vodka but I don't taste the alcohol. Tastes like cranberry apple. The thing that struck me the most is that there's no alcohol flavor.

Apple:
E: tastes like apple juice, but still some vodka flavor, could go for another round to make it better.

Citrus

3.14.10.  Happy pi day! 

We are attempting to make a citrus infusion. We are infusing orange, tangerine, lemon & lime.  In reading online we have found that there are several techniques used for citrus infusions.  Some recommend using just the zest, some say slice the fruit, some say to slice the fruit but cut off the pith, some say to use the whole fruit with ~20 holes poked 1/2 inch into the body of the fruit, some have tried a combination of zest and slices.

We decided to zest the fruit as that seems to be the most popular technique.  Some day, we'd like to try using the whole fruit with the wholes poked through the rind.  The tangerine wasn't as good as we would like it to be, so we are omitting it. 

750 ml Vikingfjord vodka
2 tsp sugar
zest of: 
1 orange
1 lemon 
2 limes


3.21.10  Taste test
This is coming along well.  It could be done now. We'll let it go for a bit more and see how the flavor comes along.  


03.28.10
E tasted this one.  Emilio says its bitter and will need sugar.  Ben tasted mostly citrus, not sour, a bit of bitterness. 
To be on the safe side, Emilio filtered this. 


04.11.10 
L was finally in town and tasted this one too.  She agrees that it is a bit more bitter.  It's still good and definitely drinkable.  However,  it was definitely better at the 7 day mark.  We'll have to see what we can do to doctor this one up and make it a bit better. 


Recipe


750 ml vodka
2 tsp sugar
zest of: 
1 orange
1 lemon 
2 limes


2 week infusion time

Rum Infusion: Ginger-Star Anise-Vanilla

2.21.10 Ginger-Star Anise-Vanilla RUM infusion

This infusion was commissioned by our friend Jen. She's not much of a vodka fan, and asked us to do a rum infusion for her. She wanted star anise, and then we suggested something to take the edge off of that flavor. She decided to go with Vanilla and Ginger. This is new and fun for us because it is uncharted territory and we have no recipe to go off of.

Cruzan Aged Rum (1L). very strong alcohol flavor. not a spicy rum.

E: "Tastes like rum"

L: that's not helpful.

E: it's neither sweet or bitter.

Neither L nor E cares for the flavor much.

We're guessing on the quantities and this will have to be monitored often for flavor balance. Also this is a 1 liter infusion, not our usual 750 mL.

Ginger took 18 days last time, Vanilla goes for forever, and we're guessing star anisie will be quick, maybe 5 days like black pepper was.

Trying to figure out strategy on this one. We're trying to scale correctly. We're going to do a 1/2 cup of ginger, 2 vanilla beans and we'll figure out the star anise later. We want to make sure Vanilla and Ginger are represented before adding the star anise, which we think will quickly over power the other flavors if we're not careful. In an effort to speed up the process we opted for more Ginger.

1L Cruzan Aged Rum

1 c sliced ginger

2 Tahitian grade A vanilla beans, sliced lengthwise

3.06.10 Balancing the ginger and vanilla

Filtered out the ginger. very gingery, the vanilla was there but it needed more time. L really liked how the vanilla smoothed out the sharpness of the ginger.

3.11.10 This is really good!

Vanilla flavor is coming along very nicely.

9pm. Added 1/3 cup star anise. We have no idea how long this will take, so we'll have to do frequent tastings to keep the flavor in balance.

3.12.10 Anise overkill. :(

8:30am. Woke up and saw that the color of the rum had changed quite a bit. L decided to give it a taste, and the star anise was definitely done, E tasted it. We both agreed that the anise is done and pretty much the only flavor component, so we filtered it immediately, but retained the vanilla beans We're going to give this one another taste later and figure out if we have to infuse more ginger to give it more balance.

Yes. We will have to add more ginger and continue to let the vanilla strengthen.

3.28.10 Under reconstruction

1 cup of sliced ginger was added to try to balance the flavors again. The vanilla beans are still in the vodka as well.